Mark McGowan shuts down his electorate office after staff receive rape threats from anti-vaxxers 

The Western Australian Premier’s electorate office has been closed due to ongoing security risks.  

Mark McGowan has confirmed his staff have been subjected to rape threats by anti-vaxxers.

It comes eight days after a man was prevented from allegedly planning dump a tank at the Premier’s office. 

It took four officers to restrain James Tioro outside his Camden Way home and take him into custody before the alleged plan could be carried out.

Just before the police intervened, Mr Tioro was standing on top of a former British Army tank known as a Ferret Scout Car, allegedly swinging a pickaxe and shouting threats, some of which were directed at Mr McGowan.  

Mr Tioro was reportedly angry at Mr McGowan over WA’s mandatory vaccination policies. 

Around five hours before his arrest Mr Tioro allegedly organised for a tow truck to take the tank to the Premier’s office. 

Channel 7 Perth reported that when Mr McGowan’s staff refused to allow the tank to be dropped off outside the office, they were abused. 

It also reported that material allegedly threatening the Premier had been found inside Mr Tioro’s house.  

The tank was then taken back to Mr Tioro’s home and several police cars later responded to a disturbance there.

A tank which a man allegedly attempted to have dumped at WA Premier Mark McGowan’s office in Perth

Mr Tioro was subsequently charged with disorderly behaviour, being armed in a way to cause fear and making an unlawful threat 

The Premier said his Rockingham office had been the target of death and bomb threats since the state government announced mandatory vaccination for much of its workforce. 

He said his office was subjected to constant ‘threatening’ and ‘intimidating’ messages.

Mr McGowan called for those responsible to ‘Just stop.’  

Anti-vaxxers have been blamed for threats made against the staff of WA Premier Mark McGowan. Pictured is an anti-vax protest at the Botanic Gardens in Brisbane, Saturday, August 21, 2021. Daily Mail Australia does not suggest that anyone pictured has made threats against Mr McGowan or his staff

After his staff got death threats in October, he said intimidation would not change the state’s mandatory vaccination policy.

‘What I’m doing and what the government is doing is what is necessary to keep people safe and keep our state safe, and we’re not going to be deterred from that,’ he said.

‘People can make Facebook comments, they can say these sorts of things, but it’s not going to change the approach to the government.

‘We have to do what we have to do to keep the state safe. Getting people vaccinated is necessary.’

His electorate office was previously evacuated last March after a suspicious package was thrown into the building.